What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone
-
0:01 - 0:07(Rainforest noises)
-
0:10 - 0:13In the summer of 2011,
as a tourist, -
0:13 - 0:18I visited the rainforests of Borneo
for the very first time, -
0:18 - 0:20and as you might imagine,
-
0:20 - 0:25it was the overwhelming sounds
of the forest that struck me the most. -
0:25 - 0:28There's this constant cacophony of noise.
-
0:28 - 0:30Some things actually do stick out.
-
0:30 - 0:35For example, this here is a big bird,
a rhinoceros hornbill. -
0:35 - 0:39This buzzing is a cicada.
-
0:39 - 0:42This is a family of gibbons.
-
0:42 - 0:46It's actually singing to each other
over a great distance. -
0:47 - 0:50The place where this was recorded
was in fact a gibbon reserve, -
0:50 - 0:52which is why you can hear so many of them,
-
0:52 - 0:57but in fact the most important noise that
was coming out of the forest that time -
0:57 - 0:59was one that I didn't notice,
-
0:59 - 1:02and in fact nobody there
had actually noticed it. -
1:02 - 1:04So, as I said, this was a gibbon reserve.
-
1:04 - 1:07They spend most of their time
rehabilitating gibbons, -
1:07 - 1:10but they also have
to spend a lot of their time -
1:10 - 1:13protecting their area from illegal logging
that takes place on the side. -
1:13 - 1:15And so if we take the sound of the forest
-
1:15 - 1:19and we actually turn down the gibbons,
the insects, and the rest, -
1:19 - 1:23in the background, the entire time,
in recordings you heard, -
1:23 - 1:26was the sound of a chainsaw
at great distance. -
1:26 - 1:30They had three full-time guards
who were posted around this sanctuary -
1:30 - 1:35whose job was in fact
to guard against illegal logging, -
1:35 - 1:38and one day, we went walking,
again as tourists, out into the forest, -
1:38 - 1:40and within five minutes' walk,
-
1:40 - 1:44we stumbled upon somebody
who was just sawing a tree down, -
1:44 - 1:47five minutes' walk, a few hundred meters
from the ranger station. -
1:47 - 1:49They hadn't been able
to hear the chainsaws, -
1:49 - 1:53because as you heard,
the forest is very, very loud. -
1:53 - 1:57It struck me as quite unacceptable
that in this modern time, -
1:57 - 2:01just a few hundred meters away
from a ranger station in a sanctuary, -
2:01 - 2:05that in fact nobody could hear it when
someone who has a chainsaw gets fired up. -
2:05 - 2:10It sounds impossible,
but in fact, it was quite true. -
2:10 - 2:12So how do we stop illegal logging?
-
2:12 - 2:15It's really tempting, as an engineer,
always to come up with a high-tech, -
2:15 - 2:17super-crazy high-tech solution,
-
2:17 - 2:19but in fact, you're in the rainforest.
-
2:19 - 2:21It has to be simple,
it has to be scalable, -
2:21 - 2:24and so what we also noticed
while were there was that -
2:24 - 2:26everything we needed was already there.
-
2:26 - 2:29We could build a system
that would allow us to stop this -
2:29 - 2:31using what's already there.
-
2:31 - 2:34Who was there? What was
already in the forest? -
2:34 - 2:35Well, we had people.
-
2:35 - 2:38We had this group there that was
dedicated, three full-time guards, -
2:38 - 2:40that was dedicated to go and stop it,
-
2:40 - 2:43but they just needed to know
what was happening out in the forest. -
2:43 - 2:45The real surprise, this is the big one,
-
2:45 - 2:47was that there was connectivity
out in the forest. -
2:47 - 2:50There was cell phone service
way out in the middle of nowhere. -
2:50 - 2:53We're talking hundreds of kilometers
from the nearest road, -
2:53 - 2:57there's certainly no electricity,
but they had very good cell phone service, -
2:57 - 2:59these people in the towns
were on Facebook all the time, -
2:59 - 3:01they're surfing the web on their phones,
-
3:01 - 3:04and this sort of got me thinking
that in fact it would be possible -
3:04 - 3:06to use the sounds of the forest,
-
3:06 - 3:09pick up the sounds
of chainsaws programmatically, -
3:09 - 3:11because people can't hear them,
-
3:11 - 3:12and send an alert.
-
3:12 - 3:15But you have to have a device
to go up in the trees. -
3:15 - 3:18So if we can use some device
to listen to the sounds of the forest, -
3:18 - 3:21connect to the cell phone
network that's there, -
3:21 - 3:23and send an alert to people on the ground,
-
3:23 - 3:26perhaps we could have a solution
to this issue for them. -
3:26 - 3:30But let's take a moment
to talk about saving the rainforest, -
3:30 - 3:33because it's something that we've
definitely all heard about forever. -
3:33 - 3:36People in my generation
have heard about saving the rainforest -
3:36 - 3:38since we were kids,
-
3:38 - 3:40and it seems that the message
has never changed: -
3:40 - 3:43We've got to save the rainforest,
it's super urgent, -
3:43 - 3:46this many football fields
have been destroyed yesterday. -
3:46 - 3:49and yet here we are today,
about half of the rainforest remains, -
3:49 - 3:53and we have potentially more urgent
problems like climate change. -
3:53 - 3:57But in fact, this is the little-known fact
that I didn't realize at the time: -
3:57 - 4:00Deforestation accounts
for more greenhouse gas -
4:00 - 4:04than all of the world's planes,
trains, cars, trucks and ships combined. -
4:04 - 4:07It's the second highest contributor
to climate change. -
4:07 - 4:10Also, according to Interpol,
-
4:10 - 4:13as much as 90 percent of the logging
that takes place in the rainforest -
4:13 - 4:17is illegal logging,
like the illegal logging that we saw. -
4:17 - 4:21So if we can help people in the forest
enforce the rules that are there, -
4:21 - 4:25then in fact we could eat heavily
into this 17 percent -
4:25 - 4:28and potentially have a major impact
in the short term. -
4:28 - 4:33It might just be the cheapest,
fastest way to fight climate change. -
4:33 - 4:35And so here's the system that we imagine.
-
4:35 - 4:36It looks super high tech.
-
4:36 - 4:39The moment a sound of a chainsaw
is heard in the forest, -
4:39 - 4:41the device picks up the sound
of the chainsaw, -
4:41 - 4:44it sends an alert through the standard
GSM network that's already there -
4:44 - 4:47to a ranger in the field
-
4:47 - 4:49who can in fact show up in real time
and stop the logging. -
4:49 - 4:53It's no more about going out
and finding a tree that's been cut. -
4:53 - 4:55It's not about seeing
a tree from a satellite -
4:55 - 4:57in an area that's been clear cut,
-
4:57 - 4:59it's about real-time intervention.
-
5:00 - 5:02So I said it was the cheapest
and fastest way to do it, -
5:02 - 5:05but in fact, actually, as you saw,
they weren't able to do it, -
5:05 - 5:07so it may not be so cheap and fast.
-
5:07 - 5:11But if the devices in the trees
were actually cell phones, -
5:11 - 5:12it could be pretty cheap.
-
5:12 - 5:16Cell phones are thrown away
by the hundreds of millions every year, -
5:16 - 5:19hundreds of millions in the U.S. alone,
-
5:19 - 5:22not counting the rest of the world,
which of course we should do, -
5:22 - 5:24but in fact, cell phones are great.
-
5:24 - 5:26They're full of sensors.
-
5:26 - 5:28They can listen
to the sounds of the forest. -
5:28 - 5:29We do have to protect them.
-
5:29 - 5:32We have to put them in this box
that you see here, -
5:32 - 5:33and we do have to power them.
-
5:33 - 5:36Powering them is one of the greater
engineering challenges -
5:36 - 5:37that we had to deal with,
-
5:37 - 5:40because powering a cell phone
under a tree canopy, -
5:40 - 5:42any sort of solar power
under a tree canopy, -
5:42 - 5:44was an as-yet-unsolved problem,
-
5:44 - 5:47and that's this unique
solar panel design that you see here, -
5:47 - 5:51which in fact is built also from recycled
byproducts of an industrial process. -
5:51 - 5:54These are strips that are cut down.
-
5:54 - 5:57So this is me putting it all together
-
5:57 - 5:59in my parents' garage, actually.
-
5:59 - 6:02Thanks very much to them
for allowing me to do that. -
6:02 - 6:06As you can see,
this is a device up in a tree. -
6:06 - 6:10What you can see from here, perhaps,
is that they are pretty well obscured -
6:10 - 6:12up in the tree canopy at a distance.
-
6:12 - 6:15That's important, because although
they are able to hear chainsaw noises -
6:15 - 6:17up to a kilometer in the distance,
-
6:17 - 6:19allowing them to cover
about three square kilometers, -
6:19 - 6:22if someone were to take them,
it would make the area unprotected. -
6:23 - 6:26So does it actually work?
-
6:26 - 6:29Well, to test it,
we took it back to Indonesia, -
6:29 - 6:31not the same place, but another place,
-
6:31 - 6:33to another gibbon reserve
-
6:33 - 6:36that was threatened daily
by illegal logging. -
6:37 - 6:40On the very second day, it picked up
illegal chainsaw noises. -
6:40 - 6:43We were able to get a real-time alert.
-
6:43 - 6:44I got an email on my phone.
-
6:44 - 6:48Actually, we had just climbed the tree.
Everyone had just gotten back down. -
6:48 - 6:50All these guys are smoking cigarettes,
-
6:50 - 6:53and then I get an email,
and they all quiet down, -
6:53 - 6:55and in fact you can hear the chainsaw
-
6:55 - 6:57really, really faint in the background,
-
6:57 - 6:59but no one had noticed it
until that moment. -
6:59 - 7:02And so then we took off
to actually stop these loggers. -
7:02 - 7:04I was pretty nervous.
-
7:04 - 7:08This is the moment where we've actually
arrived close to where the loggers are. -
7:08 - 7:11This is the moment where you can see
where I'm actually regretting -
7:11 - 7:13perhaps the entire endeavor.
-
7:13 - 7:16I'm not really sure what's on
the other side of this hill. -
7:16 - 7:18That guy's much braver than I am.
-
7:18 - 7:22But he went, so I had to go, walking up,
-
7:22 - 7:24and in fact, he made it over the hill,
-
7:24 - 7:28and interrupted the loggers in the act.
-
7:28 - 7:29For them, it was such a surprise --
-
7:29 - 7:32they had never, ever
been interrupted before -- -
7:32 - 7:34that it was such an impressive
event for them, -
7:34 - 7:37that we've heard from our partners
they have not been back since. -
7:37 - 7:38They were, in fact, great guys.
-
7:38 - 7:41They showed us how
the entire operation works, -
7:41 - 7:43and what they really convinced us
on the spot was that -
7:43 - 7:45if you can show up
in real time and stop people, -
7:45 - 7:50it's enough of a deterrent
they won't come back. -
7:50 - 7:51So --
-
7:51 - 7:56Thank you. (Applause)
-
7:58 - 8:01Word of this spread, possibly
because we told a lot of people, -
8:01 - 8:05and in fact, then some really
amazing stuff started to happen. -
8:05 - 8:09People from around the world
started to send us emails, phone calls. -
8:09 - 8:11What we saw was that people
throughout Asia, -
8:11 - 8:13people throughout Africa,
people throughout South America, -
8:13 - 8:15they told us that they could use it too,
-
8:15 - 8:17and what's most important,
-
8:17 - 8:19what we'd found that
we thought might be exceptional, -
8:19 - 8:22in the forest there was
pretty good cell phone service. -
8:22 - 8:24That was not exceptional, we were told,
-
8:24 - 8:27and that particularly is on the periphery
of the forests that are most under threat. -
8:27 - 8:30And then something
really amazing happened, -
8:30 - 8:33which was that people started sending us
their own old cell phones. -
8:33 - 8:35So in fact what we have now is a system
-
8:35 - 8:39where we can use people on the ground,
people who are already there, -
8:39 - 8:42who can both improve
and use the existing connectivity, -
8:42 - 8:44and we're using old cell phones
that are being sent to us -
8:44 - 8:46by people from around the world
-
8:46 - 8:49that want their phones to be doing
something else in their afterlife, -
8:49 - 8:50so to speak.
-
8:50 - 8:53And if the rest of the device
can be completely recycled, -
8:53 - 8:55then we believe it's
an entirely upcycled device. -
8:55 - 8:59So again, this didn't come
because of any sort of high-tech solution. -
8:59 - 9:01It just came from using
what's already there, -
9:01 - 9:04and I'm thoroughly convinced
that if it's not phones, -
9:04 - 9:07that there's always
going to be enough there -
9:07 - 9:08that you can build similar solutions
-
9:08 - 9:11that can be very effective
in new contexts. -
9:11 - 9:13Thank you very much.
-
9:13 - 9:17(Applause)
- Title:
- What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone
- Speaker:
- Topher White
- Description:
-
The sounds of the rainforest include: the chirps of birds, the buzz of cicadas, the banter of gibbons. But in the background is the almost-always present sound of a chainsaw, from illegal loggers. Engineer Topher White shares a simple, scalable way to stop this brutal deforestation — that starts with your old cell phone.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 09:30
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone | ||
Madeleine Aronson edited English subtitles for What can save the rainforest? Your used cell phone |